NYT Series explores the role of resources in African conflicts

A new series from the New York Times is delving into the role of natural resources in African conflicts.  The series begins in Congo, where an estimated 5 million people have died since the mid-90s.  Mineral extraction companies and western markets have played indirect roles in these conflicts.  Beginning in the mid-90s, armed groups saw natural resources as a means of propelling their efforts.  The most notorious character to use resources such as diamonds in building armies and amassing incredible wealth was Charles Taylor, the Liberian President who is currently on trial for war-crimes at the Hague.  Conversely, governments have used their untapped natural resources to pay private military companies to put down armed insurrections.  Doing so has linked private military companies with mineral extraction companies, a very questionable partnership.  This also begs the question of how "noble" armed insurrections, which can oust corrupt governments, can succeed when mercenaries with better technology and fighting skills allow anti-democratic leaders to cling to power.  This catch-22, damned if you do damned if you don't climate shows that the wealth of diamonds, oil, gold, silver, etc. are more of a burden than a blessing to many Africans who are trapped in cycles of violence.  This is a series that is long overdo but very important.

VP Job Opening: Large, Polluted Shoes to Fill

I have spent way too much timing thinking and writing about Dick Cheney. This may very well be my last post on the Angler, the most powerful VP in American History. My admiration for Joe Biden and my joy in John McCain picking Sarah Palin, are but mere shadows in the enormity of Dick Cheney. May he burn in hell, if indeed hell exists. When he dies, I'll stand on his grave and curse him forevermore.

1) Spearheading the effort to scare the media into compliance over the Iraq Invasion

2) "We will be greated as liberators in Iraq"

3) "The war will be paid for in oil revenue. $17 Billion tops."

4) Detainees in the War on Terror are not Prisoners of War

5) Domestic Wiretapping is good for Americans

6) The Bush Doctrine was really the Cheney Doctrine

7) Torture, lies and coverups

8) Cost-Plus, no-bid contracts for his former company Halliburton (KBR, Bechtel, etc)

9) Valarie Plame

10) Massive environmental pollution, pushed bills with such lofty titles as "Clean Air Act" while allowing environmental law-breakers to go unpunished

11) The list goes on and what we don't know could fill the oceans.

Meanwhile in Africa...

people are unable to live at subsistence level. Oil and mining companies continue to make incredible profits from resource rich environments but such revenues fail to reach the common citizen. Exxon Mobile's record quarterly profits of $11.1 Billion comes in the wake of record levels of poverty in Africa and a ever-growing gap between the world's richest and poorest nations.

Corruption reigns supreme, leaders hoard any wealth that is created, the local populace emulates such behavior and the day-to-day survival depends on a bribe here and a favor there. Swaziland, a country of incredible poverty and equally incredible mineral resources, is but one example of power run a muck and a populace ignored by its wealth-hungry leaders. Chumming with China, Shell and BP, these leaders grow to dismiss their people and lavish gifts upon themselves and their loved ones. To create a more egalitarian global economy and to improve the security of nations who depend on oil and other resources from overseas; a wise decision would be to promote real economic growth -- demanding that 50% of profits be made available to social projects and revitalizing foreign development, while simultaneously revoking the ability of foreign governments to handle or have access to currency. Or something like that.

Dennis Kucinich @ the DNC: Wake up America!

The Democrat who is fiercely independent: Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich at the DNC: Wake Up America!

Hospitals deporting illegal aliens

Incredible how the anti-immigrant sentiment that is widespread among Americans has made its way into institutions charged with providing care. Immigration reform is going to take some drastic changes in coming years; I just hope that ridiculous notions of walls and mass-deportations fall by the wayside. Those who create notions that these are some kind of 'silver bullet' solutions have no concept of the complexities of immigration trends around the world, what fuels immigration into this country and the important role that immigrants play in our economy and our culture as a whole. If people are apprehended by the police and discovered to be here illegally, I understand that they can be deported but don't think that they should unless they have broken a law (apart from residency). Regardless, for hospitals and non-law enforcement groups to take a role in the deportation of undocumented people is horrific and must not endure.